Tag: disaster

One of CFCA’s goals is to provide a stable, tranquil presence in the lives of our sponsored friends.

This is especially important when natural disasters or economic catastrophes strike in the communities we serve.

Stiven, a sponsored child in Colombia.

A sponsored child in Colombia, Stiven, woke up in December 2010 to find his family’s house had been destroyed by heavy flooding and mudslides.

Tr·nsito Hern·ndez, coordinator of the Antioquia project in Colombia, wrote to us about that day.

“This family had, very painstakingly, tried to construct a house with a roof made of plastic and other discarded materials,” she wrote. “But when the ravine that protected his house caved in from the rains and mudslides, Stiven was surprised to awake to a broken water main and a house buried by rocks.

“Miraculously no one was hurt.”

The family needed immediate assistance to build a retaining wall, but the community didn’t have the resources needed for the reconstruction.

Today Stiven’s family is doing well and is extremely active in the CFCA community. Stiven’s mother, Blanca, has learned accounting through CFCA’s livelihood workshops and has managed to buy two sewing machines for her tailoring business.

“In this family, it is inspiring to see how, through their strong values and CFCAís personal outreach, or rather, the strength of God, they can surpass this great difficulty,” Tr·nsito wrote.

Please keep Stiven’s family in your prayers as they continue to rebuild from the flooding.

A. When disasters strike countries where CFCA works, we offer many ways to stay informed.

By visiting the CFCA website, you can view news reports and blog posts compiled using reports from the field, and connect to our Facebook page and Twitter account. These outlets are updated with the latest reports, photos and video we receive from the field.

When disasters occur, the first priority of the local staff is to contact sponsored members to assess damage and identify immediate needs.

As soon as we receive information from the field, CFCA publishes reports on our website, Facebook, Twitter and the CFCA blog. Sometimes, disasters can affect communication lines and it can take longer for CFCA to receive and publish information.

It is not feasible for CFCA to notify individual sponsors on the status of their sponsored friend. CFCA is only able to notify individual sponsors when a sponsored friend dies. CFCA does not publish names of sponsored victims until their sponsors have been notified.

In addition to what we had reported earlier, it has been confirmed that nine sponsored children died in the ensuing mudslides caused by Tropical Storm Agatha. We have personally notified each sponsor individually of the loss.*

Today, we want to honor the memory of those nine children who died in the mudslides. The short video below is a small tribute to our dear friends.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

*As is our policy, we do not release names of the deceased until the sponsors have been notified first.

Cephas Miningou, financial auditor for the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging’s Africa region, talks about a family who lost their home in a fire and the meaning of the CFCA “Community of Compassion.”

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